Specialization and Division of Labour: A Survey

The purpose of this chapter is to survey the literature on specialization and the division of labour in society. In the introductory section the classical literature on specialization is briefly reviewed. The neoclassical literature on specialization and new trade and growth theory based on marginal analysis will be reviewed in Section 1.2. The formal decision models that apply inframarginal analysis to endogenize individuals’ levels of specialization and the equilibrium models that apply marginal analysis to endogenize individuals’ levels of specialization will be surveyed in Section 1.3. New classical equilibrium models of specialization based on corner solutions and inframarginal analysis will be surveyed in Section 1.4.